Employment Minister tells kids to give up the dream and start serving coffee

CUPPA CALL: Esther McVey thinks job seekers have to start at the very bottom [REX]

“You are dealt the cards you are dealt and you have to make the best of that”

Employment Minister, Esther McVey

The dip to 2.32million in the quarter to November is the largest since autumn 1997.

It means unemployment is now at 7.1%, the Office for National Statistics revealed. The number of people claiming jobseekers’ allowance in December fell by 24,000 to 1.25m, the lowest for almost five years. The number of people in work has reached a record high of just over 30m, an increase of 0.5%.

Youth unemployment also fell, by 1%, with 920,000 of 16 to 24-year-olds out of work. Employment Minister Esther McVey warned young Brits to forget their dream jobs and settle for serving coffee.

She said job-seekers need to start at the bottom of the labour chain and work their way up. And she claimed foreign migrants are more prepared for the world of work than young Brits, who need to learn the basics and turn up on time.

She said: “You are dealt the cards you are dealt and you have to make the best of that. That is life.

"You could be working in Costa. But in a couple of years you might say ‘I’d like to manage the area’ or might even want to run a hotel in Dubai.”

Last year, 1,700 people applied for eight jobs at a new Costa Coffee shop in Nottingham, paying between £6.10 and £10 per hour. But Kamaljeet Jandu, a national officer at GMB Union, said the Government would have children chimney-sweeping if it could.

He said: “Given half the chance, the Government would be sending children up the chimney again.

“There are one million young people looking for work – that’s the fault of the Government’s economic policy, not because young people don’t get up early enough.

“The Government has no realist plans for apprenticeships and training."